Chemical lovers

Here is a test for you. What are the chemicals below?

CH₃COOC₅H_{11 |} CH₃COOC₈H₁₇

How will you test them?

I always find nature amazing. There are many reasons for this of course if you just take a quick look around wherever you are, there are thousands upon thousands of demonstrators you could find as testament to the brilliance of random evolutionary design. Not to mention the epic sunsets and myriad weird and wonderful creatures that live a top mountains and in the depths of the sea.

It is also quite amazing to realize that all of the variation that exists, whether it is the hair on an elephants trunk or lava pouring from a volcano, is just a very limited set of atoms that have been bonded and arranged in an unlimited amount of ways.

I know, this isn't news to anyone but you have to think at times, how it is at all possible. What are the purposes of all these chemicals (in 2015 the 100 millionth unique chemical compound was registered) and why are there so many?

There are many reasons of course and from nature's perspective, each compound plays a role in evolution. Perhaps it is a compound for color that will attract an insect to a flower or a compound for a rock that makes it a little harder than the next and gives it crushing ability that shapes the earth. Whatever the chemical compound, it has some effect on its surroundings.

Humans make compounds too of course. Synthetic compounds that may never have existed before are thrust into the environment along with all of the evolutionary ones. These too will have an effect on the surroundings. There are the big ones that pollute the oceans like plastics and the little ones that can kill millions, like Sarin.

We can never really know of course what effects a chemical will have on the other 100 million chemicals before they come into contact and some of the reactions that take place may be undetectable. At least to begin with.

We do not know what kind of evolutionary changes will take place when we consume aspartame or release the many chemicals into the air that we and everything else breathes. We cannot possibly test them all against each other or in combinations and groupings. We cannot know what happens to a blue whale when it comes into contact with one of the many soluble chemicals that float through the oceans.

I always find it somewhat disconcerting when some authority deems a chemical safe for consumption, not to mention all of the industrial chemicals that go untested.

Over the last 50 year, The Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the world’s authority for chemical information, has registered on average one new chemical every 2.5 minutes. That is quite incredible don't you think? But do you know what is more incredible?

Out of the 100 million, the last 75 million have been registered in the last 10 years. One every 2.5 seconds thereabouts. Imagine all of the smart people required to test those against all of the others that are known to exist...

Perhaps, with the introduction of all of these synthetic chemicals that the world has never interacted with before, one will make us superhuman, like Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider. But, another chemical could also cause great white sharks to grow wings and fly and the 'close to science' movie, Sharknado becomes a reality.

I don't know where it will lead but remember that every chemical takes its place in the chain with all the rest. Almost like a blockchain in many respects where one interaction leads to the next sector being formed and perhaps like the blockchain, we don't really know all of the implications or where it will lead.

By the way, the chemical compounds above are isoamyl acetate and octyl acetate. The piece of equipment used in testing is one of the most sophisticated chemical separators ever created. A nose. The first compound is the core smell of bananas, the second of oranges. Just about anyone can tell the difference between the two.

Like I said, nature is amazing.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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